Sign-composing device



July 2l, 1925.

L. A. GRAHAM ET AL SIGN coMPosING DEVICE Fi1d May 16 192,4

Illlll llllll Q l Q .IlIlIl-.III

Patenten .my 21,1925.

UNITED. STATES- PATENT' oFF-ICE.

LoUIs A. cumin, or nvnnsron, V.auto CHARLES I.. Low, or CHICAGO,ILLINoIs.

v SIGN-Conrosme nnvlcn.

, 4Application led Iay 18,1' 1924. Serial No. 713,678.

To all whom it mayV concern; Y Be it known that we, Lome-A. GRAHAM l'and CHARLES L. Low, citizens of the United States, residing, respectivelat Evanston, in the county of Cook and tate of Illinols,

and at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, havejointlyinvented cerf. tainnew and useful Improvements in Signj ComposingDevices, of which the following is a specification. A

This invention relates to a device by I means of which letters, figures,characters,

or 'other indicia expressive o f a sign or other announcement to bemade, can be composed at will by selected collocation of light-af-.fecting bodies, such' as marbles, beads, or

other segregated objects of spherical or other form having the capacityfor transmitting, reflecting, or otherwise aifecting light in contrastwith a ground, or field developed by a `backin structedto receive andhold them in positions in which-they are placed; and particularly to adevice in which theelemental characters of the sign'are themselvescomposed by selected arrangement of thelightaffecting bodies, asdistinguished Jrrom composition of Words or the complete sign byassociation of-originally complete letters or the like, and, to whichend, the mounting upon which the constituent objects are assembled hassubstantially the entire area ci its field of composition formed withsymmetrically disposed pockets or recesses for the objects, so that thesame original segregated light-aiecting objects lmay bevemployed Jfordelineating any character desired, and in addition thereto, thebackground or ield with which the composed characters are to contrastcan be supplied with light-affecting objects 'of a contrasting kind, orbe left with the inherent lightaffecting quality of the mountingunchanged.

In carrying out the invention, the mounting in whichis formed the fieldof ockets or seats for the composing elements 1s preferably constructedto pass light through it, and, to` this end, it .may be madeoftranslucent material, in which case it is preferably caused to lendspecial character to the light that passes through it or is reiiectedfrom it, as, for instance, by making it of milk` white glass or glasssuitably tinted or colored; or it may be made of non-translucentmaterial provided with periorations or' mounting con' suiicient innumber to develop anV illumif vcomposing objects; or the mountingv mayembody as its iield of positioning pockets and light transmittingopenings, any suit-v ably reticulate'd structure, such, for instance,`as woven wire. Y

In .all forms of the invention a coniiningV plate is laid over thecomposing objects to retain them in their seats, and this confining latelis rendered transparent either by makmgit of inherently transparentmaterial or by providing it with apertures coincident with the composingobjects to be disclosed. Moreover, this confining plate may be formedwith registering pockets that lreceive and assist in locating thecomposing objects, or it may have a plane face opposed to said objects,and the backing member and confining plate may be held in assembly inany suitable manner, as, for instance, by

applying to marginal portions thereof- .on an enlargedscale of a portionofthe device shown 1n Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a ragmentary' face view of the backing member of Figures 1and 2. Figures 4, 5, and 6 are views correspondf ing to Figure 2,showing modified constructions of backing member and conning plate. V-Referring to Figures 1 to 3., 1 represents a backing member. which, inthis instance, is made of milk white translucent glass molded withsymmetrically disposed seats or pockets 2 for the reception of spheres 3of glass or other material adapted to affect light, either transmittedor reiected', and lrepresents'a confining plate adapted to be placedover the objects 3 after they have been selectively located in theirpockets 2 to render them definitive of elements employed for expressinga sign, notice, or the like. The backing member 1 and the conning member4 may be held in assembled relationv by clamping channels 5 applied tothe ends thereof, which clamping channels may serve as the means forsuspending or otherwise supporting the composite sign produced.

enA

-ianged openings 2c member 1 may be produced as a plate of substantiallyuniform thickness, but with its pockets developed b alternate concaveand convex portions, wi h the concaves on one side corresponding to theconvex portions on the other side. Certain advantageous light effectswill result from this particular form of backing member sincerefraction. due to the concavo-convex portions of the plate will resultin a measurably advantageous concentration of light on the compositionobjects. l

ccordin to Figure 4, the backing member 1* is p ane on one side andundulated on the other side to produce spherical pockets 2, and theconining-plate 4a is similarly constructed, so that it assists inholding the composition objects against displacement.

Figure 5 shows a mounting for the com# position objects, consisting of aplate 1b having apertures 2b in which the composition objects 3 areseated, the confining member 4 being a lane glass plate, as in Figures 1and 2. he apertured plate lb may be of glass or even' opaque materialsince light would be transmitted throu h its apertures 2" whether theyare occupied by translucent composition bodies 3 or left open.

According to Figure 6, the packin member 1 consists o a. metal plateaving struck up therein, and

the confining plate 4 is of similar construction, although it mightobviouslybe similar to that shown in either Figure 2 or Figure 4.

We claim:

1. A sign composing device, comprising a niountin constructed to providea field of symmetrically disposed seats or pockets, the field andpockets being translucent, and a plurality of light-contrastingtranslucent objects adapted to be selectivel located in said pockets ina manner to elineate, by their comparative 1i ht traL mission,characters to b e expresset 2. A sign composing device, comprising abody of translucent glass having formed manner to de-

